The story of a house. In a field. And how it gets there.

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“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” – Seneca

In pulling together our scrapbook, there was one one house that we kept revisiting. Not perfect, but just something that “connected” with both of us. More interestingly, it’s a house that’s here in Maine and designed by a local architect.

I’ll admit that we struggle with the idea of an architect. Not sure if it’s long standing Yankee frugality or the notion that an architect represents an immodest “7-Series” type luxury, but we’ve resisted hiring one for any of our building projects.

At the same time, we can’t help but think that the site deserves something extra. And I personally believe in the notion that an architect’s skills might be the most valuable in a smaller house where every square foot works just a bit harder.

So tonight we walked the site with the Architect. Hands down — it was our best experience to date. He had carefully gone through our 20+ pages of notes and had comments and questions. He had downloaded a site plan from Bing to look at neighborhood and solar orientation. Had very simple sketches that incorporated those elements. Stayed after our 90 minute meeting to take photographs of the site nearby houses, tentative driveway location, etc.

Still not entirely sure that we can afford his services, but it was truly nice to see all of our pre-work be used.